Christine Brennan of the USA Today writes that the absence of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds has given baseball a sense of freshness this season.
It’s as if two co-existing realities are present in baseball — parallel universes if you will, in which you can be a huge fan of the game and also be greatly concerned about steroids. It’s not unlike the reality faced by fans of the Olympics, who revel in the joys of the Games even as they wonder who might be cheating before their eyes.
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 53% of baseball fans cared “a lot” about baseball players using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, while an additional 29% cared “a little.” Only 16% said it mattered to them not at all. And 34% of the fans surveyed estimated that at least half of all major leaguers use illegal substances.
So fans think there is a lot of cheating going on, and they care about it — but then they dash to the ballpark anyway.
The funny thing is, it actually makes sense. It’s the game they are coming to see in most cases — or this week, even more esoterically, the spectacle of opening day.
No matter how bad the news for baseball, the act of going to a game is still a childhood fantasy for most of us. For those few hours, most fans don’t want to be reminded that the real world has intruded on the game. Tell them later, tell them tomorrow morning — but don’t tell them while they’re in their seats. That time is all the baseball fan has to escape.
Last night I was watching baseball and it hit me how much I love the game. I, like many fans, spent the summer entrenched in the Clemens-McNamee trial, as well as the Mitchell Report, of course. But I don’t care now. I mean, I do, but I just want the game back. Baseball is such a terrific game, but it’s being ruined. Maybe Brennan is right and the game gets a shot at redemption this year with Barroid and Clemens on the sideline.
